His screenwriting career took more than a few notable turns. Most famously was 1979's "Caligula," the explicit look at the tyrannical and hedonistic Roman emperor. Wild sex scenes prompted gasps through the film world, as did the drama behind the scenes -- after disagreements with the directors and others on the film, Vidal had only limited control over the final product, as the movie was re-cut (with additional sex scenes) by producer and Penthouse chief Bob Guccione.
There were also plenty of adult themes in Vidal's New Orleans-set mystery "Suddenly Last Summer," a 1959 release that trafficked in murder, mental illness and (homo)sexual explicitness. Starring Montgomery Clift, Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, Vidal adapted the picture from the Tennessee Williams play. Despite (or because) of its racy themes, the movie went on to be a big box-office hit.
Meanwhile, Vidal's novel "Myra Breckenridge," about a transgendered Hollywood actor, became the basis of a wildly campy 1968 movie starring Tom Selleck and Farrah Fawcett. And all this of course doesn't include a spate of teleplays as well as uncredited screenwriting gigs, with the author working as a contract writer for MGM at one point in his career.
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